(From balsam). Balsamics, or those medicines by which wounds are healed. The term includes medicines of very different qualities, as emollients, detergents, restoratives, etc. But all medicines of this kind are supposed to be soft, yielding, and adhesive. Balsamics are generally directed for complaints whose seat is in the viscera; and as they cannot be conveyed there but by the common road of the circulation, it follows that no effects can be expected from them but by their long continuance. Hoffman calls those medicines by the name of balsamics which are hot and acrid; and unites with them the natural balsams, and gums, by which the vital heat is increased. Dr. Cullen considers almost all of the substances called balsams to have the form and consistence of turpentine, and in general to possess similar virtues; see Terebinthina. Dr. Fothergill seems to be of the opinion of Hoffman, and cautions against their use in ulcers of the lungs. Though modern chemists are not agreed as to the difference between balsams and resins, still balsams are considered to be fluid, odorous, inflammable substances, and contain a concrete acid, which may be obtained by sublimation or decoction. Balsams probably contain the largest proportion of oil, and resin of oxygen. See Med. Observ. vol. iv. p. 231 - 18. Cullen's Materia Medica. Lewis's Materia Medica.